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By Susan Elise Campbell
\nMalta Farm and Garden, at 2712 Route 9, is now open to shop for farm, garden and pet supplies.
\nIt is the latest of five stores owned by the Millerton Co-op, a group of farmers who have been supporting each other as an enterprise since the 1940s, according to the store\u2019s general manager Paul O\u2019Neil.
\nThe Malta store is the co-op\u2019s northernmost location, O\u2019Neil said. It opened in early October.
\n\u201cWe were bringing four boxloads a week up from the Chatham store an hour away and getting many referrals,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we wanted to plant our flag up here and build a retail store to better serve our customers.\u201d
\nThere are five full-time staff working in the warehouse and showroom, plus four part-timers.
\nO\u2019Neil said Malta \u201cis a great growing town with plenty of room\u201d and the intersection at Route 9 and East High Street was just right for 20,000 square feet of new construction.
\nO\u2019Neil and his wife Patti live in Saratoga Springs and their son Christopher lives in Luther Forest. All three work at the Malta location, while Paul has oversight for all five stores. He has been in the animal feed and supply business since the 1980s.
\n\u201cI was working in the Agway store in Kinderhook part-time while in college and caught someone\u2019s eye in management,\u201d said O\u2019Neil. \u201cThey liked the way I worked and offered me a position.\u201d
\nIn 1984, the Agway Corporation went bankrupt and the farmers co-op that had been grinding, mixing and selling grain for 40 years separated from Agway. They set up their first store in Millerton, N.Y. O\u2019Neil became general manager.
\nBy 1996, the Chatham store had been established. Over the decades the co-op evolved their farm supplies and feed store into a retailer of diverse lawn and garden supplies, pool chemicals, wild bird seed and pet food. Ownership does not include as many dairy farms as it once did, but members who participate join for free and receive an annual patronage refund, according to O\u2019Neil.
\n\u201cA member needs to have either a horse farm or a dairy or cattle, not just six chickens in the back yard,\u201d he said. \u201cThe co-op was designed for those making a living off their land or their livestock, and that includes horse rescues.\u201d
\nWhen the pandemic hit, he worked with a feed company to provide food for the standardbreds at Saratoga harness track.
\n\u201cThey weren\u2019t racing and there was no income coming in,\u201d he said. \u201cWe fed more than 600 horses stabled at the track and three training facilities off-site for a week in mid-April. We did it again in June working along with the Horseman\u2019s Association.\u201d
\nAt Malta Farm and Garden, visitors are viewed \u201cnot as customers but as partners\u201d and O\u2019Neil wants \u201call local businesses to do well,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe smaller family-owned stores are always in competition, but if we don\u2019t carry an item we will always send a customer to a local shop before we send them to a big box store,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe we can all work together to compete with the big guys.\u201d
\n\u201cIf someone is looking for a specific item or brand, we won\u2019t say nope, we don\u2019t have it,\u201d said O\u2019Neil. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to find or recommend an alternative, something comparable to resolve their issue.\u201d
\nBishop Beaudry Construction LLC of Colonie was general contractor and Syversten Riguso Architects, PLLC out of Clifton Park was the design firm. Ballston Spa-based Bohler Engineering was responsible for land development and Sienna Fence Company of Clifton Park and AJ Sign Company of Burnt Hills were also sub-contracted
\nVisit www.maltafarmandgarden.com for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Susan Elise Campbell Malta Farm and Garden, at 2712 Route 9, is now open to shop for farm, garden and pet supplies. It is the latest of five stores owned by the Millerton Co-op, a group of farmers who have been supporting each other as an enterprise since the 1940s, according to the store\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":33843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n